Shares of large U.S. life insurance companies initially surged Wednesday following news they may receive aid from the government's $700 billion financial industry rescue program. But the Treasury Department said only life insurers that own banks or saving and loans qualify for assistance, and that no new programs for the industry were being considered.

Try saying the classroom is for sleeping to the 95 NFL players now availing themselves of the league's continuing education program at some of the finest business schools throughout the country. Given an opportunity to learn from top teachers and professionals, they network, take copious notes and make plans for the years that will follow their playing days.

Born in 1964, Ma Yun better known in the Northern Hemisphere as Jack Ma showed little promise as a child in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Physically scrawny, an indifferent student and reared during the disorienting Cultural Revolution, Ma failed college entrance examinations twice. Finally, at age 20, he won entrance into Hangzhou Normal College, a poorly rated institution.

In 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available, banks and other lenders gave out nearly 419,000 mortgages to buyers borrowing at least four times their annual income, sums that were unheard of less than a decade ago.

Mortgage applications tumbled nearly 25% last week and requests for loans to buy homes sank to an eight-year low as potential buyers held out for better terms and government help, a trade group's survey showed Wednesday.